Mojo. It’s escaped me totally for the last 3 months, leaving me locked inside with the heating on, the cars put away for the winter and the curtains shut. Call me in Spring. Well, that was the plan, but slowly, over the last few weeks I’ve started getting back into it culminating in to today: a (relative) marathon of spanner twirling and garage based action.

A master plan has been hatched to shoot the Herald for Retro Cars at the end of Feb so I’ve been pulling together the finishing touches: Christmas brought me Ram pipes and with a bit of cutting of the inner arch they were on.

I’ve bought a set of low profile mesh filters as well; I’m not brave enough to run open…The carbs are due a rebuild and I’m just waiting on the kit and I can give them the full Dave Vizard gas flow treatment while I’m there…

The exhaust has always hung low on the Herald and frankly looked like is was made for a totally different car. I decided to “fix” this and in my book of definitions “fix” means make it louder at the same time. The back box was binned leaving me with a nice easy routing. Some stainless pipe was ordered and cut about to fit.

The pipe that arrived, while stainless, wasn’t exactly the shiniest…in fact it looked like mild. This turned out to be fortuitous giving me the opportunity to add a bit of texture with sandpaper before I polished it; the Herald isn’t some show car, it’s a ’60s gentleman’s racer and as such would not be sporting a chrome pipe!

Before & After

I used the original mounts and new, period hangars and hung it all up: More ground clearance, more noise, less weight. But mainly more noise, which is a good thing.

Next: Oil cooler mount was taken off and remade (plug welded instead of bolted) and painted:

And that covers today’s action. Not long now and it’ll be back on the road: Race Retro here we come!

Well, the new issue of Retro Cars Magazine dropped last week, so I can finally post up some sneaky B-roll from the build up feature! Make sure you check out the mag for all the detail, but for now get a load of this:

This just in: The Herald has hit the road on its new wheels and suspension…but I can’t tell you about that just yet…Check out the June issue (out 10th May) of Retro Cars Magazine for the full scoop. As soon as it lands I’ll post up some more, but for now here’s a teaser! (if you really can’t wait there’s another pic floating about on twitter – @racereightysix)

In other news I’ve done some engine stuff too; I finally spent some time setting up the twin SUs; what a difference! I found this brilliant old Car and Car Conversions (I miss that mag!) guide to step through the whole process. Check it out HERE available for download in handy PDF format.

I bet you’d forgotten about this one…? I’ve got some big plans for this over the next couple of months and have been busy collecting parts, getting stuff made up and filling my Parents’ garage. I wasn’t going to post anything just yet, but then my rims dropped and I was in love…

These are stock Herald wheels banded out by the legends at AC Fabrication. I was blown away by the quality, finish and turn around time. Thanks guys! These are off for powercoating this week and , if all goes to plan, once the E28 is on the road the Cafe conversion can kick off in anger!

What started as a casual look at a local car that came up for sale turned into a full on hunt for a Triumph Herald…Why? Erm, not sure really, they are just one of those slightly rarer cars that are everything you want a ’60s British car to be: Odd, bit of racing pedigree and rear wheel drive. So it was my Dad that found this car (it’s his fault) and after the usual viewing, test drive and haggle (though none of this mattered; the second the garage door went up I knew I was buying it) I was driving it home. It’s not going to be a massive project, in fact it’s pretty much there…but you know I can’t leave things alone so…erm, we’ll see!

Wheels are Spitfire optional Dunlop Steels.

Engine is a 1500cc from a Spitfire with twin SU carbs, 4-branch manifold and stainless system. ‘Box is a 4-speeder from the same.

The suspension is Spitfire at the front and poly bushed with just a lowering block at the back. Brakes are also from a Spitty with braided lines.

I’ve done a fair bit of work already from changing all the fluids to bleeding brakes to fitting a new clutch master cylinder and balancing the carbs. The interior also got a good clean as it was covered in 43 years of life (and from the smell of it a fair amount of death).

It’s been so cool just cruising about in it this weekend. Still umming and ahrring about what to do. I love the period street racer look and the Outlaw 356 style from my earlier post…let see.

The main reason for getting the car is to have something I can use as much as possible from hitting the shops to hitting the beach this is my not quite daily cruiser.

While the Scene Queens were hitting Players 4.0, I was keeping it distinctly more “village fate” at a local classic show. I’m still on the detox from another hardcore summer at the shows and this classic gathering was a refreshing change. OK, there are a lot of stockers, but these cars are built by passionate owners the way they want them, rather than to score internet points and I’m down with that. Anyway, pics: